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Christmas groceries: Is Aldi, Coles or Woolies cheaper?

We compare the price of a basket of Christmas grocery essentials.

aldi coles woolworths christmas grocery basket 2020jpg supermarket christmas shopping making listjpg
Marianna Longmire
Last updated: 14 December 2021
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Australians are predicted to spend nearly $59 billion this Christmas, according to the Australian Retailers Association.

It's an expensive time of year, what with gifts, food, decorations and drinks to buy. Who wouldn't want to save a few dollars? 

With that in mind, we carried out a price spot-check on 22 Christmas grocery items at Aldi, Coles and Woolworths to find out which has the best buys. 

The supermarket with the cheapest basket is...

Aldi – with a total basket price of $149.14. That's $28.36 cheaper than the most expensive basket – savings that would certainly come in handy during the holidays.

The difference between Coles' and Woolworths' total basket was $10.65 – with Woolworths coming in cheaper. 

The total cost of each basket is based on each item's non-sale price. But we did get a bonus box of Cadbury Favourites in a two-for-one deal at Coles.

Cheaper deals can be found

Depending on where and when you shop, there's a good chance some of the items in our baskets will be on sale.

When we applied the specials that were available on the day of our comparison, Aldi still came in cheapest with a total price of $147.84.

Woolworths had $15.50 in savings and their discounted basket remained in second place ($151.35), followed by Coles ($171 – $6.50 cheaper than their full-price basket).

But even if the same specials we found don't apply, it's likely some items will be on sale at these retailers and you won't pay full price. 

What's in the basket?

Christmas food

Christmas decor, cards and wrap

  • Christmas cards (10 pack)
  • Christmas gift wrap (single roll, 5m)
  • Christmas crackers/bon bons (10 pack or closest)

How we conducted our price spot-check

We created a shopping list of 22 items based on last year's list, adding and subtracting to take into account availability on the day we shopped. 

We then compared Aldi's prices instore for these items with the cheapest option of the equivalent pack size or quantity available through the Coles and Woolworths online shopping sites. 

Prices were collected on the same day in December 2021 for fair comparison. The prices are the full cost of each item and do not include sales or specials.

We care about accuracy. See something that's not quite right in this article? Let us know or read more about fact-checking at CHOICE.

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